Mpagan2

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Jytdog (talk) 16:44, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

Thalidomide

HI Mpagan2, about your changes to this article.... what you are doing here, is creating a literature review, or perhaps a history of discoveries about its biology, in Wikipedia, using what we call "primary sources". However Wikipedia isn't built this way, and this kind of assembly of a narrative is a form of what we call original research, namely synthesis. What we do here is find reliable secondary sources, (for example, already-published literature reviews), published in high quality journals, and we summarize them here in Wikipedia. Please see WP:MEDDEF (part of WP:MEDRS) for a defintion of the kinds of sources that we use.

Another thing that is happening, is that what we call WP:WEIGHT is getting thrown off via the very detailed expansion of this section. Please be mindful of WEIGHT - it is a key part of the WP:NPOV policy.

I realize that the section was somewhat messed up when you came upon it. I have trimmed it back, so it is sourced only from reviews and gives WEIGHT within it, as weight is given in the reviews.

I realize this is a class project, but you are working in live WIkipedia space. Jytdog (talk) 13:44, 8 May 2017 (UTC) pasted commented here that was left on my talk page in this diff -- Jytdog (talk) 14:18, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

Hi Jytdog. Thank you for your feedback regarding my recent revisions to the thalidomide page. As you mentioned this is a class project and with that my work needs to be reflected on this page somewhere. Taking what I did already, do you see anywhere on this page or on any associated pages where I may elaborate on the mechanism of action like I previously did? I understand this needs to be concise first and foremost, but I would like to still be able to add what I've found whether it be under this section or perhaps starting a new one to fit my findings.

Best, Mpagan2 (talk) 14:14, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

Not in the way you have done it, no. The issue is not just "concise" but the way you are building content. Wikipedia needs to be built from secondary sources, and summarize them, and you have built a self-created review from primary sources.

For your class work, one thing you can do is create a "sandbox" page (here, I did it for you: User:Mpagan2/Sandbox) in your "userspace" (see WP:Userspace) and the content can go there, and your instructor can look there. I took the MoA and synthesis content from the last version of the article that you edited and put it there; I also cut the content from your Userpage and put it there. Jytdog (talk) 14:29, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

btw, is your class working with the Wikipedia:Education program? They offer all kinds of support and training... Jytdog (talk) 14:30, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

I see your point. Thank you for creating that sandbox page that will surely help me for the project. As far as I know, no we are not using this program but my professor may be interested in it so I will pass along the message

I noticed that you did keep the synthesis portion I had added, however I revised as the first sentence as this is actually incorrect. Thalidomide is racemized in the body and using enantiomerically pure forms of the drug is not useful. This change can be found in my sandbox page User:Mpagan2/Sandbox. (talk) 15:00, 8 May 2017 (UTC)

Got it thanks Jytdog (talk) 16:45, 8 May 2017 (UTC)